Either Or
by Mobius Shadow
Summary: In a storm, Kagome & Inuyasha get struck by lightning, and get sent back in time farther then usual- to a few days before Kikyo was killed. Now they have a chance to change history!- but will Kagome exist in the future? Or will Naraku kill them all?
1. If

Either Or  
  
*  
  
1 - If  
  
*  
  
Kagome decided to try again. She was sure they would grasp the concept sooner or later.  
  
"You take the food out of the packaging, put it in the microwave, and turn it on."  
  
Shippo raised his hand. "How do we know which is the packaging?"  
  
"Good question, Shippo. The answer is: the part that's NOT the food."  
  
"Well, yeah," said Inuyasha. "But with some of this stuff it's a fine line." He squinted at the package in his hand. "What the hell's 'Italian Pasta Dinner'? What's an Italian, anyway?"  
  
"An Italian is someone who lives in Italy, a boot-shaped country which originally housed the Roman Empire, which is the seat of Western, that means not ours, culture. The Romans all wore robes called 'togas', which looked sort of like Miroku's robes-"  
  
Miroku, hearing his name, looked up from trying to see down the front of Sango's dress. No one seemed to notice this, and he went back to work.  
  
"- and that's who the Italians are descended from. As for this meal-" she grabbed it out of Inuyasha's hands and ripped one end of it open- "you take the plastic container out of the paper box, take the plastic wrap off of the plastic container, and put it in the microwave." She did so. "Okay. That will be MY dinner. Everyone else choose one from the freezer and queue up."  
  
*  
  
It was an extremely wet, miserable, rainy day in feudal Japan, and, by coincidence, also an extremely wet, miserable, rainy day in modern Japan. So the group was now in Kagome's living room, watching television and eating their microwaveable meals. At least, Kagome was. The rest were still in the kitchen. After about five minutes, Kagome set down he chopsticks resignedly.  
  
"Miroku."  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"You took all the outside wrapping off?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"You put the tray in the microwave."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"You set the timer."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"You pressed the 'start' button?"  
  
Dead silence.  
  
*  
  
Kagome's Grandfather was sitting in the building that housed the well, trying to reorganize a filing cabinet and not doing very well. The rain drummed on the roof above his as he sorted.  
  
"Let's see, if these were the donations for August, then." It went on and on and on. He finally ran out of manila folders, and decided to give it up. He turned off the lights, opened his umbrella, walked into the doorway with it, swore, closed it, stepped outside, reopened it with some difficulty, and walked off towards the house.  
  
Behind him, there was a squeal as a board snapped. From the roof, a thin but quickly widening stream of water trickled down into the well. The surrounding woodwork was going to collapse it the weight of the water was not removed soon.  
  
*  
  
Everyone had finished their meal and were sitting around the TV, watching Iron Chef. Kagome and Sango, who both had secret desires to become good chefs, sat riveted in front of the screen as Chef Ingumongosaki glazed his ham. Inuyasha and Miroku, to whom fine cuisine was cooking your food on both sides before you ate it, were dozing off. Shippo was already asleep. Inuyasha's eyelids drooped, popped up, drooped, popped, up, and finally closed with conviction. He gently tipped over till his head was on Kagome's shoulder. He snored softly. Miroku looked over at him, smiled and then suddenly appeared to be come sleepy as well. His lids did the up, down routine Inuyasha's had, and he gently tipped over, slowly, until his face was resting in Sango's lap.  
  
SMACK  
  
Grandfather threw open the door, which bounced back off the wall and hit him squarely in the temple.  
  
"OW. Okay, who fired the gun!?"  
  
"There isn't any gun," said Kagome.  
  
"I just got sleepy and leaned over and-"  
  
"-He hit his head on the table," finished Kagome smoothly.  
  
"You sure? Boy, I'd get an ice pack if I were you. Anyway, I'm off to the store to buy more filing folders. Say, where's your mother, anyway?"  
  
"She said she was off at a PTA meeting-"  
  
*  
  
"Hit me," said Mrs. Higurashi  
  
"Okay. You got twelve showing."  
  
"Stay."  
  
"Dealer has Blackjack."  
  
*  
  
"-and she won't be back until nightfall."  
  
"Okay. Try not to break anything, I'll see you in a few hours.  
  
"I think," said Sango, who was still looking at Miroku, "We had better get back to our time."  
  
There was a lightning flash. Four seconds. There was a thunderclap.  
  
"Okay." Kagome nudged Shippo awake with her foot and Inuyasha awake with her elbow.  
  
"I swear, all that fuss just because I got tired and fell asleep."  
  
"Did I miss something?" asked Inuyasha.  
  
"Oh, nothing, he just took a cue off the way you fell asleep."  
  
Inuyasha considered the possibilities. "You are one sick monk, Monk. Still, it was pretty original for you."  
  
"Why thank you, Inuyasha."  
  
They walked back to the well building.  
  
"Well, I guess we're off to the past."  
  
"Wait," said Kagome. "I think I-" she felt her pockets "Yes. I left my lipstick tube there. I though I might have dropped it on the way here."  
  
Inuyasha leaned unnervingly close to her face and looked at her lips. "What's lipstick?"  
  
"Girls put it on their lips to make them appear more red."  
  
"You're kidding me."  
  
"NO. Now let's go; that one was new."  
  
Kagome, who was practiced at this by now, leapt over the edge of the well, and landed in-  
  
-a foot of water. Nothing happened. Kagome made a mental note that the well did not work when filled with water.  
  
"What the? Hey!" more water was streaming in from the hole in the ceiling.  
  
Another lighting flash. Two seconds. Thunder  
  
"I'll right, I'll get you out."  
  
Inuyasha jumped in after her, and-  
  
There was an unbelievably bright flash that coursed down the dripping water, so bright Miroku and the others were temporarily blinded.  
  
Then there was thunder.  
  
Feeling thoroughly shell-shocked, Miroku wended over to the well entrance, and looked down into it. It was empty.  
  
"Don't worry! I'm coming!  
  
He jumped in, and was not struck by lightning. But nothing happened. He jumped up and down. Nothing happened.  
  
"Sango?"  
  
Sango leaned over the edge of the well, but not so far as the front of her shirt could be looked down. She was developing subconscious reactions with Miroku.  
  
"What?"  
  
"I think the well is broken."  
  
"Which means?"  
  
"We are trapped here, in Kagome's time, without Kagome, but with her mother, who is going to want to know where her daughter went."  
  
*  
  
Kagome woke up. The lightning bolt had left her feeling like she had an extremely bad sunburn. She was lying on her back, and Inuyasha was not there, but she could see, in the flattened grass, where his body had been. She decided he must have already gone to sleep somewhere. Selfish pig. And yet, there were some qualities he had she simply adored. She cast a wary eye about for her lipstick container, and, not finding it, began to look under bushes.  
  
Inuyasha was, in fact, a bit more wary about the situation. This place smelled different then when it usually did. Familiar, but different. Kagome would have associated it with something you dragged out of the attic after years of storage. Inuyasha had, on a hunch, decided to leave her next to the well, where she could get away if he needed to. His electrocution had only dampened his spirits, and he was feeling unusually pessimistic and suspicious.  
  
The village, was right where he had left it, with the same nondescript huts and such. Well, similar nondescript huts. His memory was far from photographic, and the village did seem different. Not evil or deadly, just. different. He walked from building to building. Obviously, it couldn't be THAT different; people looked at him and went back to whatever they had been doing before.  
  
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a familiar face.  
  
"Hey, Kagome! Hey! Do you know where to the others are?"  
  
The young woman turned to him.  
  
"Who's Kagome?" asked Kikyo. 


	2. Then

*  
  
2 - Then  
  
*  
  
Miroku was trying to figure out what to do. He wasn't having a great deal of luck.  
  
"I think the well isn't working because there's water in the bottom."  
  
"So we're supposed to drain it?" asked Shippo, who was on his third stalk of celery and not yet really convinced something bad could have happened.  
  
"Yes. But I'm not sure how. I think we need a pump."  
  
*  
  
Kagome couldn't find her lipstick tube, and was just about ready to go back when she saw Inuyasha run around the bend.  
  
"Oh there you are," she said. "Why did you leave?"  
  
"Because this place is different."  
  
"No it's not."  
  
"Yes it is. It has Kikyo."  
  
*  
  
Miroku rapped on the bathroom door. "I think I've found one of Kagome's skirts that will fit you," he said. In an attempt not to look too out of place, he was wearing some old overalls Mrs. Higurashi gardened in, and Sango was dressing in the bathroom. She stepped out.  
  
"How do I look."  
  
"Sort of like Kagome."  
  
"Do I have to sit in this?" asked Shippo. He was sitting in a cage Kagome had used for the transportation of her cat to the vet. It was too small for Shippo, but obviously the only way he could be carried around in public. Because Miroku and Sango were going to go see if they could find a pump. They had tried buckets, but the water was still coming in, and neither one of them wanted to stand in it. It was two feet deep, now, and the storm was still going strong. Miroku looked around Kagome's room while Sango dressed. On the floor next to her bed were socks and-  
  
The bottle with the jewel shards. Wherever Kagome was now, she was shardless. He wondered if this mattered. He also wondered how long the paint stripper he had found would take to dissolve the skirt he had handed Sango. It had said 'warning: eats fabrics', so he had decided to give it a shot. Oh, the anticipation was unbearable.  
  
*  
  
"What do you mean, it has Kikyo?"  
  
"I mean I just spoke with her. It wasn't the reincarnated Kikyo, either. This one was perfectly happy to see me. We must be in the past." And Inuyasha began, silently, to cry.  
  
*  
  
"Where are you two going?" Kagome's grandfather had returned with filing folders and a paper cup of coffee.  
  
"We need to find a water pump."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"The well is filled with water and doesn't work."  
  
"Oh, damn it, I though I fixed that roof this time. Come on, I have a pump for just such occasions."  
  
*  
  
Kagome had left Inuyasha by the well. He wasn't speaking, and she couldn't see his eyes, but he was crying, and probably wanted to be left alone. She decided to go see the village for herself.  
  
She had pretty much the same experience as Inuyasha had had. Everyone looked at her and glanced away, although a few of them stared at her out-of- place clothes. But if she gave these people stern looks, they looked away very quickly indeed. She looked like Kikyo, she remembered, and Kikyo was important. She wandered out of the village and up onto an overlooking hilltop.  
  
The sun was setting, and she could see the village below, not really doing much of anything. It had really grown by Kagome's time, but now there couldn't be a thousand people.  
  
"Hello, Kikyo," said Inuyasha, walking up the hill. She turned suddenly, and faced him. He lacked the beads around his neck and his sword. She would have to be careful. This was not her Inuyasha, it was Kikyo's.  
  
* 


	3. For

*  
  
3-For  
  
*  
  
Kagome's grandfather had produced a piece of equipment that, under any other circumstances, Sango would have attacked as a demon. It was large, black, had more lights than Sango though were needed, had too many wheels, and the large rubber hoses going out both ends looked like tentacles.  
  
That was what Sango was thinking. Miroku was watching her skirt.  
  
"Okay," said Grandfather. He flipped a switch and the thing began to make chugging noises. Wheels moved. Pumps went back and forth. Water began to shoot out the back of the machine, and hit Miroku squarely in the ankles, which knocked him over. It a reflex, he lashed out at with his staff, and suddenly there was a huge electric arc. It was blue, and blinded them.  
  
They blinked. They were still next to the well, and nothing had changed. Except for one thing.  
  
The pump had vanished.  
  
"Oh DAMN it," said Grandfather. "I liked that one."  
  
*  
  
A few hundred years earlier, Inuyasha was just about done crying. He was hunched over, with his back to the well, and he suddenly realized that he had better find Kagome before she met the real Kikyo. This couldn't be good.  
  
As he walked away, the well pump shot out of the well, and landed on the ground.  
  
*  
  
Inuyasha from before stared at Kagome. Kagome stared at Inuyasha.  
  
"What are you wearing, Kikyo?" Kagome tried to think fast. She failed. "I like this outfit." It was the generic whiplash remark to make when your clothes were criticized.  
  
This argument had successfully defended /lederhosen/, after all.  
  
Inuyasha thought. "It's unusual," he said, but smiled and scrubbed Kagome playfully on the head.  
  
She gasped, but quietly. He almost never touched her, unless he was about to drag her out of the way of a fireball.  
  
And she gently reached up and patted his ears. He looked at her and smiled.  
  
"Come on. Let's go sit on a hill and watch the sunset."  
  
*  
  
Sango's skirt was, in fact, dissolving, but whatever the hell 'toluene' was, it wasn't dissolving fast enough for Miroku's tastes.  
  
They were now trying to suck the water out with Mrs. Higurashi's vacuum cleaner. Kagome's grandfather had gone through school in the years before the Second World War, and had absolutely no knowledge of electricity. Which was why, after flipping the circuit breaker for the fifth time, he had wedged a yen coin between the breaker and the contact and come Well or High Water, he was going to PUMP this thing.  
  
The storm raged overhead as he flipped the switch.  
  
*  
  
"Stay."  
  
"Dealer has 18, you have 19." Mrs. Higurashi got the pot.  
  
The dealer dealt cards. Mrs. Higurashi looked at hers.  
  
"I'll-"  
  
There was a distant explosion, which, if the listener was alert, didn't sound quite right for thunder.  
  
"Huh. Hit me."  
  
*  
  
The vacuum had been one of those hokey little apparatuses that had the face of an elephant on the front, with the hose being the trunk. If the vac was blue, the canister said 'Henry'. If it was green, it said 'George'. In this case, nobody was ever really sure because the top of the vacuum was now imbedded in the ceiling in the form of molten plastic droplets.  
  
Miroku was the first to recover, but didn't say anything or move, because if he shuffled a bit this way, maybe he could see up Sango's skirt. Well, it was Kagome's skirt, but Miroku wasn't big on particulars.  
  
* 


End file.
